Tag: hiking

what a magnificent place! taroko gorge is a national park near hualien, created by tectonic plates and millions of years of erosion that reveal gorgeous marble canyons. they are super narrow or deep in some places, others show the greenest water you can imagine.

it looked a lot like vintgar gorge in slovenia, but many times larger. it really looked like we were inside an ancient chinese painting, with the steep mountains and fog covered peaks!

our host recommended this place for lunch, and it did not disappoint — especially the sticky rice, steamed in bamboo!

one of the best parts came near the end. to get to a particular trail, we had to do 400 meters of tunnel through the mountain, and the tunnel was completely dark. i couldn’t quite understand why… but then some taiwanese tourists walking besides us shone their powerful flashlight on the ceiling and wow! sooooo many bats! i think this was the first time i saw so many of them together, and it suddenly made sense why the tunnel was so dark.

i did not realize there would be so many highlights to this place, otherwise i would have planned to stay more days so we could hike around the park between all the sights. something for the next visit! :)

you know when you when you’re walking along a path in a garden or forest and you see a shortcut that people have walked on over and over again, so much that it became a new, more convenient path? it’s probably a straight line, an efficient way to cut a corner. we actually have one of these really close to our place: the “official” sidewalk goes around the space, but there’s an “unofficial” shortcut that goes right through the middle.

these paths are called desire paths. i don’t even remember how i came across this expression, but i’ve known it for many years and always remembered it because of the quirky, endearing name. i had never heard anyone use it before though, until our walk in yangmingshan:

the proper cobbled path goes around the corner for a bit longer, and over time, people have created a shortcut through the middle, to save some steps. it’s a silly thing, but it was the first time i saw the expression being used and it made me look and smile. :)

we saw the the blue magpie while on a hike in yangmingshan, the national park to the north of taipei. it’s a beautiful place, with hills and mountains carpeted in green, water buffalos roaming around, remnants of the japanese military, lakes and hot water. getting there was its own adventure though! we caught a mini-bus that drove all the way uphill like it was being chased by rockets, or like the driver was afraid the bus would roll down the hill if it stalled. because the number of seats was limited (and there were lots of elderly people going to the thermal baths), we stood the whole trip and held on to dear life. what a ride! 

after we stepped off the bus, the surroundings were so green and beautiful… everything was quickly forgotten!

we started our hike in a small circular trail around qingtiangang grassland, and then took the path to lengshuikeng, while the water buffalos watched us from afar. there were stakes on the ground in certain spots, so that you could hide behind them if they decided to attack, which apparently happens sometimes! they were super well-behaved though.

calling this a hike might be a bit of a stretch, as the path was always paved with stones and well-kept. more like a nice walk in the forest, to take in the sights. everything is so vivid green up here, i enjoyed it a lot.

and at the end, there was this thermal bath place, the water of which drained through some pools where you could sit and have a little foot bath. it was so good… what a perfect ending to a hike!

so far, we’ve been pretty much city dwellers in taipei. the city is huge and it feels like there’s already so much to explore right here on our doorstep… but at the same time, the mountains are all around us, luscious and green and tempting! so for a quick leg-stretching, we went up “elephant mountain” one day after breakfast…

…which was a bit of a mistake, because despite the walk being relatively short, the way up is aaaaaall stairs. my belly still had warm soy milk sloshing around it as we made our way up the successive staircases, sandwiched between other tourists. once we were out of the main trail though, the path became much smoother and the views unobstructed by people. it was really nice to be in a forested area, surrounded by green at the city’s doorstep.

an amouse-bouche for a future hike!